1896.] The Cost of Collegiate Education
Harvard
Yale .
Dartmouth
Waterville
Hamilton.
Amherst.
Brown
University of Pa. . $lBO.OO
Letting such quotations as these go bail for the facts as to an
increasing cost of collegiate education, what shall be said of their
import ? Can we not simply dismiss them with the plea that one
rose does not make a summer, or that the doctrine of averages in
the above is worked too one-sidedly ? May we not in brief accept
the facts, but fail to agree with the inferences drawn from them ?
It is far from my thought to under-rate any problem affecting
the relationship of dollars and education. The two certainly hold
no fixed and invariable ratio to each other. Additional cost may
or may not point to increased efficiency. Buildings and material
equipment no more constitute the essentials of an education than
do four walls a house. And it would be as useless to limit
expenditure in one case as in the other. Here, as in all realms of
spirit-growth, " many are called but few chosen," and the only
cure for any real or supposed excess in academic liberty is more
liberty.
But the question cannot be dismissed in this way, the impor
tance of the material in reaching the spirital makes the discussion
of the nether ends of these processes essential. Four groups of
facts, however, militate against the conclusions usually drawn
from an admitted increase in cost of collegiate education.
First. Such increase is but in line with the general rise in cost
of living. As the standard before an individual, family or nation
rises, new elements not before classed as necessities become such.
The amount of soap, sulphuric acid, books, pictures, etc., utilized
by any people, are an index to their enlightenment as truly as
churches and Bibles.
Second. The increase in average expenditure may or may not
188 r.
$484.00 to $807.00.
1893.
$687.50.
1892.
$281.00.
1893.
$275.00.
1825.
$176.00
. $175.00
slor.oo
1830.
$84.00
$335. 00